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The voice that was best when it faltered,

Is fuller and firmer in tone:

And the smile that should never have altered,—
Dear Clarence ;—it is not your own;
Your cravat was badly selected,

Your coat don't become you at all;
And why is your hair so neglected?
You must have it curled for our Ball.

up.

I've often been out upon Haldon
To look for a covey with Pup;
I've often been over to Shaldon,
To see how your boat is laid
In spite of the terrors of Aunty,
I've ridden the filly you broke;
And I've studied your sweet little Dante
In the shade of your favorite oak:
When I sat in July to Sir Lawrence,

I sat in your love of a shawl;

And I'll wear what you brought me from Florence, Perhaps, if you'll come to our Ball.

You'll find us all changed since you vanished;

We've set up a National School;

And waltzing is utterly banished;
And Ellen has married a fool;

The Major is going to travel;

Miss Hyacinth threatens a rout;
The walk is laid down with fresh gravel;
Papa is laid up with the gout:

And Jane has gone on with her easels, And Anne has gone off with Sir Paul; And Fanny is sick with the measles,

And I'll tell you the rest at the Ball.

You'll meet all your beauties;—the Lily, And the Fairy of Willowbrook Farm, And Lucy, who made me so silly

At Dawlish, by taking your arm; Miss Manners, who always abused you, For talking so much about Hock; And her sister, who often amused you By raving of rebels and Rock; And something which surely would answer, An heiress quite fresh from Bengal ;So, though you were seldom a dancer, You'll dance, just for once, at our Ball.

But out on the world!-from the flowers
It shuts out the sunshine of truth:
It blights the green leaves in the bowers,
It makes an old age of our youth :
And the flow of our feeling, once in it,
Like a streamlet beginning to freeze,
Though it cannot turn ice in a minute,
Grows harder by sudden degrees.
Time treads o'er the graves of affection;
Sweet honey is turned into gall;
Perhaps you have no recollection

That ever you danced at our Ball.

You once could be pleased with our ballads—
To-day you have critical ears;

You once could be charmed with our salads-
Alas! you've been dining with Peers;
You trifled and flirted with many-

You've forgotten the when and the how;
There was one you liked better than any—
Perhaps you've forgotten her now.
But of those you remember most newly,
Of those who delight or enthral,
None love you a quarter so truly
As some you will find at our Ball.

They tell me you've many who flatter,
Because of your wit and your song;
They tell me (and what does it matter?)
You like to be praised by the throng:
They tell me you're shadowed with laurel,
They tell me you're loved by a Blue;
They tell me you're sadly immoral—
Dear Clarence, that cannot be true!
But to me you are still what I found you
Before you grew clever and tall;

And you'll think of the spell that once bound you:

And you'll come, won't you come ? to our Ball?

(1829.)

LETTERS FROM TEIGNMOUTH.

II. PRIVATE THEATRICALS.

-Sweet, when Actors first appear,
The loud collision of applauding gloves!

Your labors, my talented brother,

Moultrie.

Are happily over at last;

They tell me, that, somehow or other,
The bill is rejected,—or passed :
And now you'll be coming, I'm certain,
As fast as your posters can crawl,
To help us to draw up our curtain,
As usual, at Fustian Hall.

Arrangements are nearly completed;
But still we've a lover or two,
Whom Lady Albina entreated,

We'd keep at all hazards for you:
Sir Arthur makes horrible faces,-
Lord John is a trifle too tall,—
And yours are the safest embraces
To faint in, at Fustian Hall.

Come, Clarence ;-it's really enchanting
To listen and look at the rout:
We're all of us puffing, and panting,
And raving, and running about;
Here Kitty and Adelaide bustle ;

There Andrew and Anthony bawl;
Flutes murmur, chains rattle, robes rustic,
In chorus, at Fustian Hall.

By the bye, there are two or three matters,
We want you to bring us from town;
The Inca's white plumes from the hatter's,
A nose and a hump for the Clown:
We want a few harps for our banquet,
We want a few masks for our ball:
And steal from your wise friend Bosanquet
His white wig, for Fustian Hall.

Hunca Munca must have a huge sabre,
Friar Tuck has forgotten his cowl;

And we're quite at a stand-still with Weber,
For want of a lizard and owl:
And then for our funeral procession,
Pray get us a love of a pall;
Or how shall we make an impression
On feelings, at Fustian Hall?

And, Clarence, you'll really delight us,
If you'll do your endeavor to bring
From the Club a young person to write us
Our prologue, and that sort of thing;

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